eggspress yourself

as I live and breathe! what should show up at my door but a real, paper letter from the paper mistress herself, ms. donovan beeson of 16sparrows and the letter writers alliance. I've seen these vintage stamp envelopes on podpodpost before, but it's very cool to actually see one in person. and looky what I got, an LWA membership card. would i be a total dork if i laminated it?it was a tough choice, but i think I'm going to write back to her on this card. it's from egg press, but i can't find it on their site. isn't it a good one, though? love it!

dear mary,

We found this rejection letter while browsing through the Orlando Sentinel (click to make it bigger), and it's pretty amazing.

Apparently, in 1938 women were not allowed to "do any of the creative work" at Disney and so they were writing to tell her she was rejected from training school.

What we thought was also kinda weird was that a woman named Mary was telling another woman named Mary that she couldn't work at the company she worked for--just because she's a woman.

Anyone else have any rejection letters they'd like to share?

[Image via Sim Sandwich]

video: writing a letter

While we were futzing around Youtube, we found this cute video about writing a letter. Check it out. [Via pistchiodance]

writing your own letters is so passe

Feel like sending letters but don't want to deal with the whole hassle of buying paper, a pen and then using them together in some sort of complicated way?

Well, there's a website that can solve all your problems. eSnailer prints, stamps and sends your letter out for FREE. All you have to do is type in your message on the site.

Sounds almost a little too good to be true. Has anyone ever tried this? [Via geeksugar]

and they're off!

We were completely enchanted by the concept of postcrossing from the moment we heard about it. We can't believe it took us a whole 48 hours to sign up and send some of these little beauties out. Ideally you're supposed to send a postcard, but we didn't have any of New York on hand, so we just used some flats (goodness knows we've got enough). These puppies headed out today and are on their way to Finland, China and Spain. Postcrossing isn't a penpal service, though we encouraged our recipients to write back if they wanted. Otherwise, we should be getting a card from someone completely different. Updates to come as the situation develops!

dear cab driver...

Prepare for your next night o' drinking with these genius napkin/letter writing templates. Just remember that by "cab driver" we really mean your designated driver or friend who will walk you home, because if you think a real cab driver will follow your drunk ass instructions, you're sadly mistaken my friend.

(Nor do we really want to encourage a cab driver to go looking for cash in our bra/skirt/trousers. Dirty!) [Dear cab driver napkins from the spoon sisters, $3.95 for a pack of 12]

AWESOME: postcrossing.com

If we had our act together, this is something we would have wanted to do ourselves. Lucky for us, Paulo Magalhães has it together because he created Postcrossing a "project that allows anyone to receive postcards (paper ones, not electronic) from random places in the world." The map above shows the last 500 postcards and where they've traveled. If you like exchanging books with faraway friends, check out Bookcrossing too. Maybe this'll help with the real letters series we keep trying to get started? It's a whole lot easier to write a postcard than a letter--though the stationery options aren't as cute... Would you join Postcrossing? We're seriously considering it. [Via getTRIO, thanks.]

national stationery show: millimeter/milligram

Oh MMMG, we love your beautiful simplicity and "You're not ugly" messaging (so true, so true). We're speechless, so let's just stare at the pretty pictures together...

itsy bitsy envelopes

Diane and I were wandering around Jam Paper half-crazed looking for the perfect mini envelopes. (Why? You'll find out later...) We should have searched, Etsy (where else?) first. Le Petit Parisian Envelopes from Sarahkat, $4 for a set of 10.

Mini envelopes from sweetyprize ($6 for a set of 20)

Vintage church offering envelopes from covetablecuriosities, $2.75 for a pack of 3

Mini envelopes from time2cre8, $3 for a set of 20

reminder: stamp prices up today

Remember when Jotter was a wee new blog (a whole month ago) and we said something about stamp rates going up May 14th? Well, apparently we (and the USPS) weren't lying and it's happening today. In addition to those damn 2 cent stamps you'll need for your 39 cent ones to get up to par, pick up some Forever stamps so the next time there's an increase you won't have to worry (or do math--which is always the worst part). For the down and dirty details on the rate hikes, USPS has an "easy reference" PDF.

the letters you keep

While trying to find more information about National Card and Letter writing month (did you know that was going on right now, because we didn't...) we stumbled upon this contest Crane & Co. is holding until May 15th. You could win $500 bucks worth of stationery (that's a whole lot of stationery, or maybe it's just one really fancy piece of paper) if you tell them about a letter you've kept all these years and why. While you're at it, tell us in the comments what that letter was and what made it so special... And hey, here are two more letter related links we found: -Sothere.com (a forum for reading and publishing unsent letters) -Letter lover

OLD LETTERS: Ms. Donovan Beeson

Oh, what a friend we've made in Donovan (one half of one of our favorite presses, 16 Sparrows). Donovan is the first to answer our call for old letters. Well, second if you count a.k. We must say, the experience has given us two more reasons to admire Ms. B (besides her general moxie, that is): her amazing variety of stationery and her impeccably charming handwriting. Our chicken scratch to make its debut on the site sometime soon.

cordial customer service

We've been trying to get a real letters series going, and while we're waiting for the mountains of mail you're sure to be sharing with us soon, we thought we'd break the postal ice by sharing a letter we just received from an unlikely source. Anthropologie. Now we're used to receiving emails about canceled orders, even phone calls, but a typed out letter mailed to our homes? Never. We were very confused, but also a little secretly thrilled (nerdily thrilled) that we could share such an anomaly with you. This, of course, gives us yet another reason to love Anthropolgie. They like sending mail as much as we do. Though we would love them more if they could have sent that dress we wanted. (Click the image to make it larger if you'd like to read the whole thing.) Do you know any other companies (besides credit card ones--because those jerks love to send mail) that correspond via letters? We want to know.

your mug on a stamp

Might as well use the postage rate increase as an excuse to create new stamps with some better images on them--your images! (Just don't try to get away with any of those naughty pictures you've got tucked away on your hard drive. Their FAQs say, "Photographs can not be objectionable in nature. Each photo is reviewed and approved by Endicia staff before images are printed." Party poopers.) A sheet of 20 stamps will cost you $17.95. [Picture it Postage for Macs]

consider the hands that write this letter

Since it was ol' Shakespeare's birthday yesterday and April is National Poetry Month and everything, excuse us while we put away our funny hat for a second and share this poem: Consider the Hands that Write This Letter by Aracelis Girmay

           after Marina Wilson

Consider the hands
that write this letter.
The left palm pressed flat against the paper,
as it has done before, over my heart,
in peace or reverence
to the sea or some beautiful thing
I saw once, felt once: snow falling
like rice flung from the giants' wedding,
or the strangest birds. & consider, then,
the right hand, & how it is a fist,
within which a sharpened utensil,
similar to the way I've held a spade,
match to the wick, the horse's reins,
loping, the very fists
I've seen from the roads to Limay & Estelí.
For years, I have come to sit this way:
one hand open, one hand closed,
like a farmer who puts down seeds & gathers up
the food that comes from that farming.
Or, yes, it is like the way I've danced
with my left hand opened around a shoulder
& my right hand closed inside
of another hand. & how
I pray, I pray for this
to be my way: sweet
work alluded to in the body's position
to its paper:
left hand, right hand
like an open eye, an eye closed:
one hand flat against the trapdoor,
the other hand knocking, knocking.

re-post: old letters

We STILL want your letters. Come on, dig 'em up and send 'em over to (check out our new email address!) tips@thejotterblog.com. Original post: Do you keep old letters? If so, do you want to share 'em with us? We want to start featuring some real handwritten letters (love, sad, mad, whatever the emotion...) a few times a week. But you choose how much you want to share. Just a line or two? Sure. Don't want your name attached? Okay. Just scan or take a picture of the snippet you want to share and send the file to tips@thejotterblog.com. Of course, if you have an anecdote or comments to go with the letter, we'll post those too. (We have some letters we want to share, but we have to go dig them up from the back of our closets. Those will be coming soon...) UPDATE: We promise to get those old letters up soon... [Updated photo provided by bob on maui]

required reading

We read a post we loved recently by Kathy Zadrozny at Behind the Curtain. In an ode to all things letterish, she pointed us in the direction of some great epistolary opportunities. First comes a challenge from Felicia Sullivan, urging everyone to write as many letters as possible this month, some to be displayed in her comments section. But why not share the love? Submit your writings to our call for letters as well! Are there any books that inspire you to write letters? The second item to win our admiration is this recommended reading list from Letter Lover: Letter Insights and Anthologies:

- Epistolary Practices: Letter Writing in America before Telecommunications by William Merrill Decker (University of North Carolina Press, 1998) - Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters from the End of the Affair by, Anna Holmes (Caroll & Graf Publishers, 2002) - The Book of Love: Writer’s and Their Love Letters Edited by Cathy N. Davidson (Penguin Group, 1992) - The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time Edited by David H. Lowenherz (Crown Publishers, 2002) - Famous Letters: Messages and Thoughts That Shaped Our World Edited by Frank McLynn, (A Reader’s Digest Book, 1993)

A Lifetime of Letters. . . - Thomas Jefferson on Leadership: Executive Lessons from His Life and Letters Edited by Coy Barefoot (Plume, 2002) - Mary Todd Lincoln—Her Life and Letters Edited by Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner (Knopf, 1972) - The Love Letters of Mark Twain (Harper, 1949) - The Letters of Emily Dickenson Edited by Thomas H. Johnson and Theodora Ward (Belknap Press of Harvard, 1958) - The Selected Letters of James Joyce Edited by Ellmann, Richard (The Viking Press, 1966, 1975) - Letters of E.B. White Edited by (Harper & Row, 1976) - Letters home by Sylvia Plath: Correspondence 1950-1963 Edited by Aurelia Schober Plath (Harper & Row, 1975) - Dear Pussycat: Mash Notes and Missives from the Desk of Cosmopolitan’s Legendary Editor by Helen Gurley Brown (St. Martin’s Press, 2004)

Letters Between Lovers - The Letters of John and Abigail Adams (Penguin Classics, 2003) - Henry James and Edith Wharton: Letters: 1900-1915 Edited by Lyall Harris Powers (Scribner, 1990) - Katherine Mansfield’s Letters to John Middleton Murry 1913-1922 (Knopf, 1951) - Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills (Mariner Books, 2001) Edited by Mary Soames - Witness to My Life: The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone De Beauvoir, 1926-1939 (Scribner, 1992) - A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren by Simone de Beauvoir, (New Press, 1999) - A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953 (Harvest/HBJ Book, 1989) - I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan (Random House, 2002)

[Photo by v.max1978]

to dear or not to dear?

We're sittin' around (actually we were sleeping--not sleeping around, sitting around/sleeping) trying not to think about the blog, when a thought pops into our head. Who actually starts off their letters with "Dear..." anymore? Well, you know, sometimes it makes sense. Like when you're talking to a stranger, applying for a job, or something else equally formal. But it seems like (and obviously this has a lot to do with email, IMs and the like) that "Dear" is falling by the wayside. For the most part, it usually feels unnecessary. Who wants to start off a two sentence email with "Dear"? Especially when you're firing off anywhere from 20-100 (maybe more) emails per day... Obviously this is just minutiae and "Dear" really doesn't matter. But we were sitting awake thinking about it so we figured, why not see what everyone else thinks. How do you start off your daily communication? "Dear," "Hey," "Name"? Is "Dear" reserved for something special (like your virginity for prom night)? Or something else...? [Photo by ka.pony]

opt out

We love receiving mail so much that, in college, we used to subscribe to random magazines and catalogs to ensure there would always be something waiting in our box. Now, though, it feels like a chore to pick up the mail because we find ourselves faced with the inevitable stack of bills and junk mail that arrive. For every jewel piece of mail (a letter or a post card maybe) there are those damn pre-screened credit card offers that arrive in piles and piles. If you, like us, would prefer an empty box or real letters from real people you know, visit optoutprescreen.com to stop the insanity. It's the "Official Credit Consumer Reporting Industry website to accept and process requests..." You can also call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT. [Photo by Kenn Christ]

dear Prisoner A-113,

Sometimes our love for stationery overpowers our actual letter-writing needs. Honestly, how's a person supposed to maintain a snail-mail conversation when email and sms offer such quick back and forth? The answer might just be a pen pal. Who better to maintain a paper relationship with than someone ye hardly know. We've scoured the net for sites that offer to help people find pen pals. Here's what we came up with (our favorite is the prisoner specialty site. How very Selma meets Sideshow Mel!): PenpalsNow PenPal Party PenPal World All Penpals My Language Exchange WriteAPrisoner.com [Photo by Mamluke]